Mountain Goat Hunting?
- Thread starter WhelanLad
- Start date
Well, well, well...........where to start..........If I tell any goat hunting stories I'm going to have to go back to my therapist, you guys know that, right? Just when I thought I could almost pass for normal somebody has to bring up goat hunting, and then the nightmares start again and the debilitating cold sweats and the urge to throw myself from high places into the mist shrouded abyss below................Goat hunters per say, are not necessarily insane, the urge to hunt one of the most difficult animals in NA has merit which I understand, once or twice. However guys who guide other hunters for goats, in other words, hunt goats, hunt after hunt, after hunt, they are in serious need of therapy and possibly even detention as they obviously have zero regard for their own life and very little for others...........
Goat hunting in the Yukon is without a doubt the toughest hunt there is, because the population is low and centered in an area of very, very ugly rocks. I have heard it can be quite easy in places in B.C. but it sure as hell isn't in the Yukon. There are years go by that not a single goat is taken in the Yukon.......what does that tell ya !!! The southern Yukon is the extreme northern range of the mountain goat and as such there are pockets of them all along the B.C./Yukon border where the habitat is appropriate, but the only open hunting zone is over north of Watson Lake in the Nahanni Range of the Rocky Mountains. Here the shintangle and buckbrush grow right up to about the 7000 ft mark when tree line in the rest of the Yukon is around 4000 ft..........this should start to give some insight right off the hop.........there are no roads to where the greatest population live and they are across the Hyland river, which is always substantial and navigable some years. There are only 2 access points to the river and both are many miles from where the goats live.
I'll shorten this up a bit.......put in canoe went upstream beached and packed in for 2 days from there shot a 9 1/2" nanny all by herself and then went on a horn hunt as she somersaulted all the way down into the trees after her initial fall of about 500 ft......nearly took me with her. Found the horn that broke off, caped, gutted and packed her back to the canoe. Mt pants were literally hanging in tatters from my waistband, I had 2 gashes in my right leg that should have had stitches but we were too long on the rock.........they were from a 15' fall into sharp shale......at least it wasn't broke like we thought at first!!!!!!!!! This happened the second day after we got rained on the first day packing in, didn't make it as far as we wanted to so we ended up sleeping on a 45 degree angle on the side of the rock......hung my pants out to dry and in the am they were frozen solid and I could not get them on, had to bring them into my nice warm, dry sleeping bag to get them flexible enough to get into them. That was the end of my nice warm, dry sleeping bag for that hunt. Anyway like I said the nightmares will return now after discussing goat hunting, until I forget about it in a month or so...........and that was very nearly 40 years ago !!!!!!!!
I attended 2 goat hunts with guys in northern B.C. because I was that crazy f**ker that guys would always call when they couldn't find a sane person to go goat hunting with. What can I say I enjoyed the challenge, and we got both of them goats........of course I wasn't packing a rifle, I was just along as a mule and witness of where to find the body in case of a slip...............
Here's a pic of my last goat, only goat pic I got......
Goat hunting in the Yukon is without a doubt the toughest hunt there is, because the population is low and centered in an area of very, very ugly rocks. I have heard it can be quite easy in places in B.C. but it sure as hell isn't in the Yukon. There are years go by that not a single goat is taken in the Yukon.......what does that tell ya !!! The southern Yukon is the extreme northern range of the mountain goat and as such there are pockets of them all along the B.C./Yukon border where the habitat is appropriate, but the only open hunting zone is over north of Watson Lake in the Nahanni Range of the Rocky Mountains. Here the shintangle and buckbrush grow right up to about the 7000 ft mark when tree line in the rest of the Yukon is around 4000 ft..........this should start to give some insight right off the hop.........there are no roads to where the greatest population live and they are across the Hyland river, which is always substantial and navigable some years. There are only 2 access points to the river and both are many miles from where the goats live.
I'll shorten this up a bit.......put in canoe went upstream beached and packed in for 2 days from there shot a 9 1/2" nanny all by herself and then went on a horn hunt as she somersaulted all the way down into the trees after her initial fall of about 500 ft......nearly took me with her. Found the horn that broke off, caped, gutted and packed her back to the canoe. Mt pants were literally hanging in tatters from my waistband, I had 2 gashes in my right leg that should have had stitches but we were too long on the rock.........they were from a 15' fall into sharp shale......at least it wasn't broke like we thought at first!!!!!!!!! This happened the second day after we got rained on the first day packing in, didn't make it as far as we wanted to so we ended up sleeping on a 45 degree angle on the side of the rock......hung my pants out to dry and in the am they were frozen solid and I could not get them on, had to bring them into my nice warm, dry sleeping bag to get them flexible enough to get into them. That was the end of my nice warm, dry sleeping bag for that hunt. Anyway like I said the nightmares will return now after discussing goat hunting, until I forget about it in a month or so...........and that was very nearly 40 years ago !!!!!!!!
I attended 2 goat hunts with guys in northern B.C. because I was that crazy f**ker that guys would always call when they couldn't find a sane person to go goat hunting with. What can I say I enjoyed the challenge, and we got both of them goats........of course I wasn't packing a rifle, I was just along as a mule and witness of where to find the body in case of a slip...............
Here's a pic of my last goat, only goat pic I got......
Trimmer 905
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Thanks for the great reports,pictures and thoughts. I've hunted for almost 60 years and this has always been on my bucket list,but,at my age,now,it'll not happen. That is definitely a young person's hunt. I'm not complaining because I've hunted and taken my fair share of big game,but,I still wish I had time to do one of these. Oh,well,such is life. You can't do it all.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
About $15K Canuck all said and done for good areas, I do them a lot sharper for Canadians willing to tackle much of the challenge themselves (gear, food, packing, field dressing). Honestly it's a better experience that way anyhow.
Dream hunt for sure.
Alberta mountain goat hunting is only 4 tags a year iirc?
Never see goats; but lots of sheeps. Even almost killed a couple; with my car of course. One young ram has it in for me I swear; he's always licking salt around a new blind corner on the way up to the pond. I would relish the opportunity to pop a cap in his ass.
Alberta mountain goat hunting is only 4 tags a year iirc?
Never see goats; but lots of sheeps. Even almost killed a couple; with my car of course. One young ram has it in for me I swear; he's always licking salt around a new blind corner on the way up to the pond. I would relish the opportunity to pop a cap in his ass.
buckbrushoutdoors
Regular
- Location
- fort saskatchewan AB/Edson AB
Be ready for crazy weather changes. Only hunt I thought would beat me. Extremely wet and cold makes for some long nights and frozen clothes and boots. I poured Mr noodle in my boots to thaw them out so I could lace them up.
This picture doesn't do justice for how hard it was hiking up this Valley after two days of heavy wet snow. These are 20' tall willows layer down. Walking on top of them you would look down and see ground 5' below your feet. It was complete hell.
The hunt turned out to be a complete #### show and I will never book another hunt without getting references. I got screwed in the end and it still hurts. Partly my fault for not doing enough home work. I will go back and get a big Billy someday soon. I'd like to test myself up in ardents area.
This picture doesn't do justice for how hard it was hiking up this Valley after two days of heavy wet snow. These are 20' tall willows layer down. Walking on top of them you would look down and see ground 5' below your feet. It was complete hell.
The hunt turned out to be a complete #### show and I will never book another hunt without getting references. I got screwed in the end and it still hurts. Partly my fault for not doing enough home work. I will go back and get a big Billy someday soon. I'd like to test myself up in ardents area.
My goat hunting years are behind me as well. However, I will add a little to this thread by mentioning how grueling
a hunt for the white "goat" can be. Miserable weather, daunting terrain, elusive targets, exertion to the point of
complete exhaustion. The list goes on and on........
Some may shoot one easily, but if you pursue them over the terrain many on here have, the goat [if and when you get him]
will be a most prized trophy. As Doug stated, remembering can almost make one seek out his therapist, lol.
My two goats will forever engrave in my cortex the very difficult but exhilarating feeling that accompanies chasing these
worthy animals in their chosen ground.
Dave.
a hunt for the white "goat" can be. Miserable weather, daunting terrain, elusive targets, exertion to the point of
complete exhaustion. The list goes on and on........
Some may shoot one easily, but if you pursue them over the terrain many on here have, the goat [if and when you get him]
will be a most prized trophy. As Doug stated, remembering can almost make one seek out his therapist, lol.
My two goats will forever engrave in my cortex the very difficult but exhilarating feeling that accompanies chasing these
worthy animals in their chosen ground.
Dave.
The older gentlemen around whom I hunted had a saying..........."You're not a REAL hunter until you have taken a sheep". Then after I harvested my first sheep they told me they were just priming me up because "You're not really a REAL hunter until you've taken a goat" After harvesting my first goat, I couldn't wait to see what it was I had to do next to be a REAL hunter.............
a second goat Doug ....
The hunt turned out to be a complete #### show and I will never book another hunt without getting references. I got screwed in the end and it still hurts. Partly my fault for not doing enough home work. I will go back and get a big Billy someday soon. I'd like to test myself up in ardents area.
You don't look terribly impressed in that photo. Sorry you had a bad experience with your outfitter. Not sure exactly where you hunted, but if you're looking for a big billy any outfitter in NW BC will have them. I can recommend a few ones that I know of if you're interested. I have no experience as a client, but I do personally know the owners/operators of a couple outfits and they are good people.
You probably have to have intercourse with a Grizzly, and then strangle the Grizzly.
Iron Sighted
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Peace Region
This is an excellent thread! You guys are getting me all excited for goat hunting this fall (if I win my undersubscribed draw). Definitely my favorite hunt so far, terrain is just unreal, I love being in the alpine. Now I just need to see if I can find someone willing to join me, all my friends are lazy bastards that aren't willing to go. The one guy I talked in to coming with me 2 years ago swore that he would never go back(he swore a lot at the top of his lungs on the hike out in which we must have slipped and fallen in the wet buckbrush a combined 100 times too, lol). Never did get a goat that time but we saw a nice Billy at 600+ yards, unfortunately he saw us as well and just walked over the ridge top we had spotted him on and dissappeared, never did see him or another Billy that day, but saw a pile of nannies and kids. This year will be my year, even if I have to do it solo, screw those candy-asses that don't want to help haul my goat back down through hell for nothing, lol.
My limited personal experience thus far has been that the real work is in accessing the alpine (at least where I am hunting), once out of the trees and ridiculously thick brush I found the going a whole lot easier (and the views much more appealing). Good luck to all of you going for goats this year, if I get mine I plan to make my life much more miserable and take a recurve out for the next one, if I ever manage that feat(unlikely) I will be able to die a happy man, if the hunt itself doesn't kill me first : )
My limited personal experience thus far has been that the real work is in accessing the alpine (at least where I am hunting), once out of the trees and ridiculously thick brush I found the going a whole lot easier (and the views much more appealing). Good luck to all of you going for goats this year, if I get mine I plan to make my life much more miserable and take a recurve out for the next one, if I ever manage that feat(unlikely) I will be able to die a happy man, if the hunt itself doesn't kill me first : )
Well guys, it seems that a lot of you look on goat hunting as a one time event, or maybe the thing that made you a batty one ever after and maybe I fit the later case. In any event, I couldn't begin to count how many goat hunting trips I have been on!
I have always hunted any game for the adventure of the trip, far more than the shooting of some animal. And there is no animal to hunt that gives more opportunity for adventure, coupled with fantastic scenery, than the mountain goat. What isn't there to like about goat hunting?
I have shot goats on mountains from Tweedsmuir Park in the south to Dease Lake in the north, with in between points such as Smithers and Morice Lake.
I have seen goats on hunting trips from East Kootenay in the south to the northern Rockies, Fort Nelson area in the north. I often made two, or even three goat hunting trips in one season.
I made my last trip when I was over sixty years old and turned down a shot at a good billie on, what turned out to be my last goat trip.
In 1985 I took our youngest, fifteen at the time, on a goat hunt, along with two adult hunting friends and he got a goat, one shot with his 243. I have very few pictures of the goat hunting trips because of the weight of carrying a camera, but on this trip one of the friends had a camera and he took this picture of son Garry with his goat, after it was skinned out. By this time compulsory check on goats was required and the biologist checking it said the billie goat was above average size.
Mountain goats winter high in the alpine and every goat belongs to a group that has a home mountain. Their home mountain requires two things, a south westerly facing slope that will blow the snow off so they can feed on the exposed grasses and forbs. The goats home mountain must also have steep enough terrain to enable them to get away from all predators, except eagles. Goats are great at forecasting weather and in a long spell of good weather they may wander many miles from the home mountain, but at least two days before a storm comes, they will start for home, in order to be safely ensconsed there when the storm hits.
In about June they also go down into scrubby bush, where they can pull the old wool off of themselves by walking through the thick brush.
They are great animals and I have nothing but respect for them. They also are barely able to withstand the present day hunting regulations and many attempts has been made in BC throughout the years, to get hunters to determine the nannies from the billies and to shoot only the males.
I have always hunted any game for the adventure of the trip, far more than the shooting of some animal. And there is no animal to hunt that gives more opportunity for adventure, coupled with fantastic scenery, than the mountain goat. What isn't there to like about goat hunting?
I have shot goats on mountains from Tweedsmuir Park in the south to Dease Lake in the north, with in between points such as Smithers and Morice Lake.
I have seen goats on hunting trips from East Kootenay in the south to the northern Rockies, Fort Nelson area in the north. I often made two, or even three goat hunting trips in one season.
I made my last trip when I was over sixty years old and turned down a shot at a good billie on, what turned out to be my last goat trip.
In 1985 I took our youngest, fifteen at the time, on a goat hunt, along with two adult hunting friends and he got a goat, one shot with his 243. I have very few pictures of the goat hunting trips because of the weight of carrying a camera, but on this trip one of the friends had a camera and he took this picture of son Garry with his goat, after it was skinned out. By this time compulsory check on goats was required and the biologist checking it said the billie goat was above average size.
Mountain goats winter high in the alpine and every goat belongs to a group that has a home mountain. Their home mountain requires two things, a south westerly facing slope that will blow the snow off so they can feed on the exposed grasses and forbs. The goats home mountain must also have steep enough terrain to enable them to get away from all predators, except eagles. Goats are great at forecasting weather and in a long spell of good weather they may wander many miles from the home mountain, but at least two days before a storm comes, they will start for home, in order to be safely ensconsed there when the storm hits.
In about June they also go down into scrubby bush, where they can pull the old wool off of themselves by walking through the thick brush.
They are great animals and I have nothing but respect for them. They also are barely able to withstand the present day hunting regulations and many attempts has been made in BC throughout the years, to get hunters to determine the nannies from the billies and to shoot only the males.
Like I said initially Phil, I have taken 3 goats and been on 5 separate goat hunts.............so screw all those fine old gentlemen, ain't one of them been up for goats 5 times........Like I said before I'm the crazy f**ker in the group.
NL-H..........the grizzly was easy compared to goat hunting and only lasted 5 minutes, but HE sure didn't like it much. Maybe I should have held out for a sow, might not have got scratched up so bad............Besides that ain't really part of being a hunter, that's just outdoorsman activities, don't even really need a bow or firearm for that stuff...........I just take my "BIG GUN"
Like I said initially Phil, I have taken 3 goats and been on 5 separate goat hunts.............so screw all those fine old gentlemen, ain't one of them been up for goats 5 times........Like I said before I'm the crazy f**ker in the group.
NL-H..........the grizzly was easy compared to goat hunting and only lasted 5 minutes, but HE sure didn't like it much. Maybe I should have held out for a sow, might not have got scratched up so bad............Besides that ain't really part of being a hunter, that's just outdoorsman activities, don't even really need a bow or firearm for that stuff...........I just take my "BIG GUN"
whatever you said Doug, just going on a polar bear hunting with a bow and getting one what enough for me to put you on that list of crazy guy lol ....
Some days instead of trying to kill them I've done goat research.
Here are some habitat photos. No sheer cliffs as I have to get around, but steep and rocky enough to make a guy pay attention.
Note the red dot where I started the hike this day. Starting point courtesy of a Bell mountain escalator.....
Escape terrain.
Next time somebody calls something a 'goat path' think of this photo. Again, notice we are in the easy end of goat terrain and I'm whistling at work and not nervously sweating.
Fun fact: goat and grizz habitat can overlap! After you fall off the mountain shooting your goat you can get eaten by a grizzly.
See the white dots? Want a nice mount? Easy peasy, just stroll over there and shoot them.
Trophies come in all shapes and sizes. This is what I was wandering the peaks to gather- yummy DNA!
Here are some habitat photos. No sheer cliffs as I have to get around, but steep and rocky enough to make a guy pay attention.
Note the red dot where I started the hike this day. Starting point courtesy of a Bell mountain escalator.....
Escape terrain.
Next time somebody calls something a 'goat path' think of this photo. Again, notice we are in the easy end of goat terrain and I'm whistling at work and not nervously sweating.
Fun fact: goat and grizz habitat can overlap! After you fall off the mountain shooting your goat you can get eaten by a grizzly.
See the white dots? Want a nice mount? Easy peasy, just stroll over there and shoot them.
Trophies come in all shapes and sizes. This is what I was wandering the peaks to gather- yummy DNA!
